Plan now for road repairs later

It’s time for Jay County to get its ducks in a row.
In fact, it’s past time.
Talk of a major wind power project in southern Jay and northern Randolph counties has been circulating for a few years now, and those involved indicate construction of numerous wind turbines in that area will take place sometime between now and the end of 2013.
But despite repeated prodding, the county hasn’t put in place any requirements that county roads will be repaired when the project’s done.
Work of this magnitude is going to take its toll on the rural roads involved, and it only makes sense to spell out — in advance — what is expected in terms of making sure things are put back to normal after the construction period’s over.
Ideally, the roads involved would not only be repaired but improved when the wind farm is in place.
That’s what longtime wind power advocate Bob Lyons has been urging, but so far the response has been inaction on the part of the county commissioners, the county highway engineer, and the commissioners’ attorney.
It shouldn’t take much in the way of effort to contact other counties that have seen wind farms developed in order to find out what policies have worked and what ones have failed.
But as of this week, even that minimal action was apparently too strenuous. It’s easier to sit back and wait to see if the wind farm development actually takes place. It’s easier, and it’s lazier.
What Lyons is urging is, in effect, “closing the barn door” ahead of time, rather than waiting until it’s too late. Or, to employ another old nostrum, he’s reminding them that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
That’s always good advice.
But good advice only goes so far.
Those in a position to act need to heed it. — J.R. [[In-content Ad]]